Bulgur Pilaf

Bulgur is a very versatile grain and a widely used ingredient in Turkish cuisine. Since it’s whole grain and rich in fiber, I find myself frequently replacing white rice with bulgur. When making pilaf, it’s better to use coarse bulgur rather than fine one which is generally used in salads and koftes.

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Red Lentil Kofte

Since there are 291 different kinds of kofte in Turkish cuisine, here’s a tasty vegetarian one which is extremely rich in fiber! I love wrapping these lentil koftes in lettuce leaves and eating like that. 

You can adjust the amount of herbs and spices to your taste. I like it with lots of spring onions and herbs and prefer a slightly stronger cumin flavor.

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Artichoke Bottoms With Olive Oil

Once it’s April, you start seeing farmers selling fresh artichokes in little stands across the city. Artichokes are piled up on one side of the stand, a big bucket full of water with lemon juice sits in the middle. You watch the farmer skillfully shaving off the outer petals until all he’s left with is the artichoke bottom. He then throws it into the water to prevent it from discoloring.  When you purchase some, he puts them in a plastic bag with some of the water. Now the artichokes are ready to be taken home to be cooked.

Eating raw, fresh artichokes is quite popular as well. You can often see people buying artichoke bottoms from the stands, squeezing a bit of fresh lemon juice on them (yeah, they bring along their lemon!) and eat it right there like a fruit. I can’t tell you how nutritious this is. So if you have the chance to get your hands on fresh artichokes, try it raw. You’ll love it!

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Stuffed Green Bell Peppers (with Olive Oil)

Couple of weeks ago, I’ve reunited with three of my friends when they came to visit me in Istanbul. The last time we were all together was 12 years ago in Beijing. Needless to say, there was a lot of catching up to do! Before they left Turkey, they wanted to learn couple of new Turkish dishes to try back home, so we ended up cooking stuffed green peppers (dolma). Why this dish? Well, besides being extremely tasty, once you learn how to prepare the rice, you literally learned to cook many other dishes simultaneously- stuffed eggplants, red bell peppers, zucchini flowers and my all time favorite stuffed vine leaves!

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Purslane with Rice

Purslane, a native to the Indian subcontinent, is extremely rich in omega-3 fatty acids and has a mild sweet-sour flavor. I wanted to eat something light and healthy and luckily had some purslane in the fridge. This is such a simple dish to cook!

You can replace purslane with spinach if you can’t find it or don’t like the taste.

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